title: Outcomes of gamma knife radiosurgery for trigeminal neuralgia after a minimum 3-year follow-up.
abstract: We conducted a retrospective study of the outcomes of 17 patients who underwent gamma knife radiosurgery (GKRS) for idiopathic trigeminal neuralgia (TN) with a minimum 3-year follow-up. The median interval from GKRS to pain improvement was 4 weeks (range, 1-16 weeks). At the last follow-up, a good treatment outcome was verified in 16 (94.1%) patients (Barrow Neurologic Index pain score, I-IIIb). One patient (5.9%) had treatment failure. On follow up, six patients (35.3%) had a recurrence of pain following some initial relief. Mean time to pain recurrence was 20 months (range, 3-36 months). Four patients (23.5%) experienced treatment-related complications. Three patients reported some degree of post-treatment facial numbness. One patient reported decreased corneal sensation (dry eye syndrome). GKRS is a safe and effective long-term treatment method for TN and should be considered as an alternative option for medically intractable TN.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Kyungpook National University Hospital 50, Samduk-2-ga, Jung-gu, Daegu 700-721, South Korea. nsdoctor@naver.com
authors.forename: Seong-Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Park
authors.forename: Sung-Kyoo
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Hwang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010147:Pain Measurement; D016634:Radiosurgery / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014277:Trigeminal Neuralgia / Q000601:surgery*